The Region - News from May 29, 1985

After several hours of public testimony, a panel of scientists decided to issue a written response to allegations that the director of the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project played down the severity of toxic contamination in Santa Monica and San Pedro bays. At the hearing, David Brown repeated charges that project director Willard Bascom distorted findings and tried to censor staff members. Bascom denied the charges, displaying slides and charts that he said supported his conclusions. At the end of the meeting, panel Chairman Perry McCarty said he was pleased that the argument centered on presentation of the data and not the data itself. McCarty said he did not know when the panel would issue its response.